Majority Of Dodger Stadium Renovations To Be Completed Before Freeway Series On Friday

Dodgers President & CEO Stan Kasten said that the "majority" of the $100M worth of renovations to Dodger Stadium will be "completed by Friday for the Freeway Series exhibition against the Angels," according to Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. TIMES. The Dodgers will "have a new clubhouse and there will be new amenities on every level of the stadium." Wi-Fi will be "upgraded throughout the stadium, but in June." Kasten said, "By then, we will have the most elaborate and most extensive Wi-Fi network anywhere in baseball. Pretty good for a 50-year-old stadium.” The Dodgers "expected to have the equivalent of 31,000 full-season ticket accounts by opening day" (LATIMES.com, 3/23). Kasten added that cell phone service and Wi-Fi access throughout the stadium are the "only elements" of the Dodgers' renovations that will "bleed into the season" (L.A. DAILY NEWS, 3/24).

RAVING ABOUT RAVINE: Dodgers investor Magic Johnson on Friday said that "nothing is happening" in regard to making Chavez Ravine the site to house a potential NFL franchise. He said, "Have we explored that? No. ... I think the first thing (the NFL) wants to see is what's going to happen with" AEG-owned Farmers Field. Johnson: "If (you’re asking) if we want football back in L.A., we hope it’s downtown. But if they ever approach us, I’m sure that (Dodger ownership) will deal with it at that time" (DAILYNEWS.com, 3/22). In L.A., Steve Dilbeck asked, "Why wouldn’t you explore an NFL stadium on your 300-plus-acre site? Wouldn’t that simply be good business? Wouldn’t they be lax as owners if they did not at least explore it?" Johnson said that the first thing the NFL "wants to do is resolve the downtown site." However, Dilbeck noted he is "leery of that too." If anything, AEG Chair Phil Anschutz' decision to pull AEG off the sale market and President & CEO Tim Leiweke's departure from the company "almost smacks of an ideal situation to return the NFL's focus to Dodger Stadium." Johnson and any other officials from Dodgers Owner Guggenheim Partners can "say anything, but it simply makes too much sense for the group not to explore bringing the NFL to Chavez Ravine" (LATIMES.com, 3/23).